Germans rush to catch up with US and UK

It appears that the German secret service was stunned by the realisation that western countries like the US and UK could so easily spy on their citizens.

According to Der Spiegel Germany's foreign intelligence agency (BND) plans to spend 100 million euros expanding its monitoring of the Internet. The report came two days before US President Barack Obama was due to visit Berlin, where he was likely to face tough questions about US spying methods. We guess they want to know how to do it and make sure that your citizens don’t really care.

Germany is very worried about state spying and react badly because it reminds them of the days of the Nazis and the Stasi which carried out blanket spying. However the news that the Americans, who are supposed to be role-models for a free society, have set the bar so low, with their PRISM surveillance is leading the Germans to have a re-think.

Some German politicians criticized the plan, with Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger saying the answer to citizens' concerns about US spying could not be "Let the Germans do it instead".